Meditation center part of Aurora project bid

AURORA — Frazzled shoppers soon might be able to eliminate their stress just down the street from the mall at a new Transcendental Meditation facility proposed as part of a far East Side commercial development.

The two-story TM Program Center would be built near McCoy and Commons drives as part of a larger proposal that also includes six condominium office buildings and a parcel for retail. The property is just north of the MetLife building near Westfield Shoppingtown Fox Valley.

The Aurora City Council is expected to approve the preliminary plan for the 10-acre development Tuesday.

Transcendental Meditation is a self-relaxation technique introduced by Indian mystic Maharishi Mahesh Yogi and made popular in the rest of the world by The Beatles in the 1960s. The nonreligious meditation method is aimed at “promoting health, increasing creativity and intelligence, and attaining inner happiness and fulfillment,” according to www.tm.org.

Other TM program centers in Illinois are in Batavia, DuPage County, Oak Park, Chicago and Evanston, according to the Web site. The Batavia center is run out of a home.

The meditation technique is taught at the centers and then practiced independently. It is taught through a free introductory presentation, a two-hour appointment for private instruction and three consecutive days of follow-up lessons.

David Fitzgerald, small-business development coordinator for the Aurora Economic Development Commission, said the location was appealing for a TM center because of the area’s higher-end residential demographics.

Bill Wiet, Aurora’s community development director, said the rest of the development will include single-story office buildings and a retail parcel slated for a bank or restaurant. The office condominium market is booming because businesses can own their space with the current interest rates, he said.

Plans for the development show an office park with six 9,000-square-foot buildings that blend in with the surrounding residential subdivisions. The retail outlet would be at the southwest corner of McCoy and Commons.

The 12,000-square-foot TM program center would be just south of the retail parcel and would face Commons Drive. It will be fenced in and landscaped, Wiet said. The office development is on the west half of the property to Gregory Street.

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